The Medi-Cal 2020 Section 1115 waiver created a five year up to $1.5 billion federally funded pilot program and provided $1.5 billion from local funds through intergovernmental transfers to be used to test county-based initiatives to coordinate health, behavioral health, and social services.
One of the projects called “Whole-Person Care” (WPC) pilot was created to coordinate health, behavioral health, and social services in a patient-centered manner and especially support the vulnerable groups of Medi-Cal beneficiaries that have been identified as high users of multiple systems but still continue to have poor health outcomes.
Specifically, the goal is to provide for integration between county agencies, health plans, providers, and reduce inappropriate emergency department and inpatient services. The plan is to improve data collection and sharing among local entities to support sustainable ongoing case management, monitoring, and strategic program improvements.
With the program entering year three, population health innovators will gather in February 12-13 2018 in San Francisco at the “Bridge to Pop Health WEST” www.bridgetopophealth.com to provide updates and opportunities on how to continue to improve WPC efforts towards value-based care.
Maria X. Martinez, Director, for WPC at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, https://www.sfdph.org will present an update on activities related to population health at the February meeting. The Department has been able to match and merge data from medical, mental health, substance abuse, EMS, jails, and from benefits and shelter datasets by using the “High Users of Multiple System” to identify service gaps and improve services.
Dov Marocco, Chief Innovation & Improvement Officer and Director for the Center of Population Health Improvement for the Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System https://www.scc.gov.org will also provide an update on the Center for Pop Health Improvement’s innovative activities launched in Santa Clara County.